Police Torture Ms. Shen Chunfang from Yueyang City Attempting to Extort a Confession

2009-04-19

Shen Chunfang, 57, lives in Yueyang City, Hunan Province. Because she persists in practising Falun Gong, she has been repeatedly persecuted. This is just one account of a recent police arrest and torture attempting to obtain a "confession."

On March 3rd, 2008, Ms. Shen was reported to the police because she explained the facts about Falun Gong in public. On the night of March 7th, 2008, seven to eight people tricked her into opening her door. They then dragged her into a vehicle and took her to the Zhenzhushan Police Station. These people came from the Zhenzhushan Police Station, the Beigang Township Police Station, and the Baishiling Police Sub-bureau. The police ransacked her home and confiscated two new mobile phones and a Falun Gong book, Zhuan Falun.

That night the police interrogated Ms. Shen. When she did not cooperate, they took her to the Hubin Detention Centre for two days and then detained her in the Dongting Hotel in Yueyang City, attempting to extort a "confession." One police officer beat her three times with a three-inch-thick tree branch and handcuffed her behind her back. Another officer lifted up her handcuffed hands, causing her great pain. She sweated so much from the pain that her clothing was soaked.

Planning to force her betray other practitioners, the officers put Ms. Shen into a vehicle to locate them. She didn't cooperate, so they beat her while she was in the vehicle. At the hotel, she was handcuffed to a chair the entire night. She was then taken to the city detention centre where she was held for nine and a half months.

In the detention centre, she was forced to do hard labour 16 hours per day. When higher authorities came, detention centre officials hid all the work tools. One day Ms. Shen seemed to have a heart attack. She was in great pain and her hands and feet shook. No officer came to her aid until every person in the cell informed the officers. Handcuffed and shackled, she was taken to a hospital in Yueyang City for observation. She fainted because of pain, but the hospital still said she was fine and charged her family 300 yuan1 in medical fees. She was given no medication.

One day, a woman officer handcuffed her hands behind her back for 11 hours. It was so painful that Ms. Shen cried out. After the handcuffs were removed, her hands swelled. Even today one of her hands hurts.

Ms. Shen was detained for nine months and thirteen days, and 6,000 yuan was extorted from her. She was charged 50 yuan when the TV in the cell was fixed. In addition, the Beigang Township Police Station and the Zhenzhushan Police Station appropriated two mobile phones she carried, which were worth 2000 yuan and included a 400-yuan phone credit. They used up the phone credit, broke one mobile, and exchanged the parts in the other one.